A female music industry publicist and journalist named Joan Tarshis alleged Bill drugged and raped her twice when she was 19.
- Nov 17, 2014
AceShowbiz - Another woman who claimed she was raped by Bill Cosby has gone public with details of the alleged sexual assault. In an essay penned for Hollywood Elsewhere on Sunday, November 16, music industry publicist and journalist Joan Tarshis alleged Bill drugged and raped her twice when she was 19 back in 1969.
Joan said that she met Bill through mutual friends, who invited her to lunch to Bill's cottage on the Universal, where he was filming "The Bill Cosby Show". According to Joan, Bill invited her back a few times and always gave her drinks, although he never drank himself. One day, Bill asked her to stay and work on some material with him at his place. She later fell unconscious after having a cocktail he made for her.
"The next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed," Joan explained, "Through the haze I thought I was being clever when I told him I had an infection and he would catch it and his wife would know he had sex with someone. But he just found another orifice to use. I was sickened by what was happening to me and shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no one."
Joan claimed the second time Bill drugged and raped her was after he called her mother, who was a fan of Bill, that he was inviting Joan to The Westbury Music Theater. Joan, who couldn't tell her mother about what happened, ended up accepting the invitation.
Joan said she went to Bill's hotel room, where he made her a drink, before going to the Westbury. When she arrived at the theater, there was no seat for her so she stood at the back of the theater with Bill's chauffeur. "But soon after, I remember feeling very, very stoned and asking his chauffeur to take me back to the car," she shared, "I was having trouble standing up. The next thing I remember was waking up in his bed back at the Sherry, naked. I remember thinking 'You old s**t, I guess you got me this time, but it's the last time you'll ever see me.' "
Joan said she was prompted to share her account after seeing others went forward with their allegations, adding that "as more and more of [Bill's] rape victims have come forward, all telling similar stories, the time is right to join them."
Earlier on Sunday, Bill's representative John P. Schmitt responded to the allegations, saying that his client wouldn't address the allegations. "Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced," John said in a statement, "The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."
On November 13, Barbara Bowman, another alleged victim of Bill, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post titled "Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?", in which she alleged that Bill drugged and raped her in 1980s.
